The following tales have been told to some few men and women by the
fireside. The stories themselves only claim to be unvarnished matters
of fact; and I may repeat here what I said in a previous volume, that
my object has not been to strain after literary effect or style. My
too early desertion of home-life to graduate in the harsh and
whimsical discipline of sailing-vessels in the days when they had
still some years to live and "carry on" ere steam took the wind out of
their sails, precluded such studies as are natural to the embryo man
of letters. But the circumstances that told against mere study did not
prevent my preserving many memories of my sojourns ashore and voyages
in distant seas. I mention this fact, not as an apology, but as an
explanation which I hope may commend itself to the amiable reader.